STEEPLE-CHASING LAWYER LIBELS CATHOLICS

STEEPLE-CHASING LAWYER LIBELS CATHOLICS

Jay Milano, a victims’ lawyer who is suing the Cleveland Diocese for racketeering, has asked the Ohio Supreme Court to disqualify any Catholic judge from presiding over his lawsuit.

Milano maintains that from the day Catholic youngsters enter a parochial school, they are taught that an attack on their Church is an attack on God. “We believe it is too much to ask any judge to rule against their God, their diocese, their church and their bishops.”

Milano is no stranger to the Catholic League. He has publicly stated that the Catholic Church is engaged in organized crime. He has abused the notorious RICO statute by seeking to apply it to the Catholic Church. Now he is libeling all Catholics by saying they are unfit to preside over cases involving the Catholic Church.

The only good thing we can say about Milano is that unlike other rogue lawyers involved in the Get-the-Catholic Church movement, he is honest. For some time now, the Catholic League has been saying that some of the victims’ lawyers are fundamentally dishonest men. Not Milano—he hates the Church so much, and is unafraid of bashing it in public, that he is a different breed.

When the scandal in the Church first broke at the beginning of last year, the Catholic League said it would not defend wrongdoing committed by the Church. We hold to that principle. But we also said, and continue to say, that we will always honor our mission—the defense of individual Catholics and the institutional Church against defamation and discrimination. Let it also be said that Jay Milano is defaming the Catholic Church and is lobbying to discriminate against Catholics.

William Donohue decided it was time to confront Milano. On September 5, he wrote to Jonathan Coughlan, Office of Disciplinary Counsel of the Ohio Supreme Court, seeking disciplinary action against him. Disciplinary Rule 1-102 of the Ohio Code of Professional Responsibility dealing with discrimination is the operative provision.

In the end, the courts saw Milano for the bigot that he is. On September 16, the Ohio Supreme Court threw out Milano’s request.